In this excerpt, she considers what would have happened to Shakespeare's
sister had she had the talent and ambition he had. Women were not
given the same opportunities as men. An actual case similar to her
fictional one was that of composer Felix Mendelssohn & his big sister
Fanny Mendelssohn. She was as well educated as him, and as talented.
She loved music, but at the age of 15, she got a letter from her father
telling to focus on home & family ("women's work") and be content in
enjoying the accomplishments of Felix. She wrote over 400 compositions
anyway, which were stored away & forgotten until the last few years.
Her brother, of course, has had his work played continuously.
What does Woolf think would have become of Judith Shakespeare?
How did women's real lives differ from the fiction men wrote about them?